full activity which does not present alternative series of increase or
lessening. The cone rises gradually until by degrees it is obstructed
with lava, then a sudden fall destroys it and hollows a new crater,
sometimes larger and deeper than the first. Many such occurrences have
been described, but none can equal in importance the gigantic fall
which formed the Bay of Santorini. All the central part must have given
way, and been suddenly ingulfed, leaving but a narrow border of land,
through the northern part of which the sea has dashed to fill up the
hollow. Instead of a mountain three thousand feet high, there is a bay
of immense depth, surrounded by precipitous rocks, close to which ships
can anchor.
This violent catastrophe must have taken place when man was on the
island; and the event must have been sudden, since the remains prove
that there was no time to move away or to displace anything in the
houses. The eruption of pumice-stone has preceded the sinking of the
cone, for the tufa which covers the downs is cut through by subjacent
streams of lava; nor does it seem to have been preceded by any violent
earthquakes, as in that case the houses found in Therasia would have
been demolished and the walls no longer standing. This is remarkable,
as the construction of the buildings proves that the island was subject
to them; the pieces of wood inserted in the walls seeming to be for no
other object than to prevent the disastrous effects of such a shaking.
This custom is still in use among all the islands of the Archipelago.
From the abundance of wood used in the houses, the island must in those
days have been well supplied with timber. The olive-tree grew freely,
and barley was the commonest of the cereals. Probably too the climate
was different. The vine does not seem to have been there; still less
was it the only plant cultivated, as now, at Santorini. The population
were husbandmen, understanding how to grind barley in mills and make
it into bread; how to press oil from olives, to bring up cattle,
and to weave stuffs. Yet the great abundance of utensils of lava,
obsidian, and flint, without any metals, shews that theirs was the age
of stone, when the use of metals was unknown. The blocks of stones
at the angles of the house at Therasia and the column standing near,
indicate considerable skill in the workmen, when the kind of tools they
used is taken into consideration; whilst the vases of pottery-ware are
remarkable for their elegance of form.
It only remains to consider how many years ago it is since this great
eruption took place. The data are vague, but geologists have tried
to make some approximation. It is well known that after any violent
catastrophe the subterranean forces seem to be exhausted; the periods
of repose in a volcano are proportional to the previous energy. About
one hundred and ninety-six years before Christ there is the record of
an eruption, which raised in the centre of the bay a small islet called
Palæa Kameni. After the Christian era, frequent slight emissions only
served to increase the size of the island, and during the middle ages
there was a period of calm. In the fifteenth century the excitement
again burst forth, raising reefs both inside and outside the bay. The
second duration of rest was about ten centuries; so that to the first,
according to its intensity, there may be calculated at least twice that
time; thus the formation of the bay was perhaps two thousand years B.C.
Historical records furnish more positive teaching, as the bay certainly
existed fifteen hundred years B.C. It was at this epoch that the
islands of the Greek Archipelago were invaded by the Phœnicians. This
nation occupied Therasia and Santorini, as the many ruins still to be
found testify, and they are built on the top of the pumice-stone. But
the great eruption must have been long before that, since thick beds
of pebbles and shells, from fifteen to twenty yards deep, lie on the
tufa; and geologists know well, from the habitual slowness of this
raising of the soil, that it corresponds to many centuries. There was
also a population on the islands differing from those who were buried
in the ashes, and from the Phœnicians. The latter knew the use of
bronze, and introduced it on all the shores of the Mediterranean. Most
likely we may place the great event during the early days of Egyptian
civilisation, which some historians compute to be four or five thousand
years ago. The primitive population present no trace of the influence
which that nation exerted, and with which commerce would have placed
them in frequent relations.
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